Step 5: What's in jelly beans?

Step 6: What's in other confections?

The degree to which ingredients like carmine and confectioner's glaze are integrated into things that we eat is quite surprising. Once you know what t...

Supposing that you're less than omnivorous, you may not always be in the mood to eat insects. You might be vegetarian, or your religion tells you that you shouldn't eat insects, or maybe you're just on a strict non-bug-eating diet. Here are a couple of simple hints to help you identify foods that contain bugs, illustrated with a few common supermarket candy items.

Step 1: Introduction

This a moth. Don't eat it.

It seems that some people will eat just about anything. If you are of the highly omnivorous persuasion, congratulations. This story won't be any help at all, so please instead read the instructables about eating cute animals of some sort.

Let's be perfectly clear about this: this instructable is titled "How to eat fewer insects." It is meant to help you eat fewer (not zero) insects IF that is your choice. We do not make any judgements or claims about whether, when, or how many insects you should eat. Yes, lots of people like to eat insects, and lots of people don't like to eat insects. However, please keep in mind that it is not the topic under discussion here

If you're still interested, let's look at a box of candy in the next step.

I know it's years after the first posting but just wanted to clear something up for folks.

Shellac as an ingredient - confectioners/ food/ resinous glaze doesn't contain bugs. Shellac is the secretion from the lac female bug scraped from trees. It's true that UNrefined shellac contains up to 25% insect material, but the shellac used in food is refined shellac.

Cochineal on the other hand IS processed insects.

(As for Kosher insects there are only 4; 2 types of locust, grasshoppers and some other ground hopping thing, don't remember which. Has something to do with how their legs are set up. Don't think you'll find them much in processed food though - yet).

"...the Torah only prohibits insects which are visible to the naked eye...." http://torahmusings.com/2013/01/kosher-worms-insects/

Insects are not bad for you, but in biblical times it was too hard to tell the difference much less remember the long list of good and bad insects so the rabbis interpreted them all to be wrong. It was easier and besides a chicken or cow is much more filling than figuring out which tiny insect is ok to eat.

Insects figure intentionally into human diets around the world. Today the word mealworm is an unsuccessful search at Instructables; but someday there could easily be a tutorial on raising your own mealworms and sharing them among your big fish, your reptile, and your cookie recipe.

Resist eating oh just any insect though: Insects and plants invented chemical warfare. (What else have they got, after all.) Some of their chemicals can be medicine at the right time and dosage, but many are plain nasty--even lethal.

In sugar babies WHITE MINERAL OIL is typically used for the glossy effect it produces, and to prevent the candy pieces from adhering to each other. Some studies suggest that prolonged use might be unhealthy because of low accumulation levels in organs. resinous glaze is beetle juice, but it can be compared to honey from a bee. yumm....eat up. :)

Sorry, I still can't find that link. There are a lot of comments, most of them trash so I only gave them a cursory look. Hey, I gave you credit for being interesting. My point in adding the link (to be clear, since you did not pick up on it) was that it is inane to try to avoid processed, regulated (and safe) food sources when you can't even avoid the accidental and unregulated ones. That's in the same league as the germaphobic idiots who won't flush toilets with their hands. You won't live any longer, just in fear of everything you put in your mouth. Encouraging that sort of paranoia won't justify your own. C'mon, anaphylactic shock from a Sugar Baby!? Lighten up. I'll take bugs over processed sugar any day.

Since you didn't read the article, I'll repeat part of step one for you here: "Let's be perfectly clear about this: this instructable is titled "How to eat fewer insects." It is meant to help you eat fewer (not zero) insects IF that is your choice."

Please read that a few more times until it sinks in.

So your comment, helpfully informing me that "we cannot avoid eating insects " is kind of redundant. You put down a comment to tell me that I'm wrong for writing this article, and the best argument that you can come up with is something that I already mentioned in the article? Very helpful indeed.

How about this: why don't you try writing some instructables so that everyone else can leave condescending, off-topic, offensive, and redundant comments on yours. You'll find that most of your commenters haven't read the other comments to know that what they had to say has already been said-- and answered. You'll find that maybe a quarter of them have a question that you already answered in the article-- indicating that they hadn't read it all the way-- and you'll find the very few, very special commenters who haven't even read the title. You'll have lots of fun-- you should try it.

Anaphylactic shock from carmine is a genuine concern to a certain set of allergic people. Since you think that I should lighten up about it, it's clear that you're not one of the people that could end up in the hospital from eating a popsicle containing carmine-- and good for you. But that's no reason to wish that fate on others.

According to wikipedia's entry on gelatin, modern production is primarily from "mainly pork skins, pork and cattle bones, or split cattle hides," but that horns and toenails are not commonly used. I don't imagine that most mainstream carnivores find this shocking or disturbing, but I personally think that is a bit strange that some of our desserts consist essentially of sweetened meat.

wow dude... thumbs up on the instruc mate... scary thought... im gunna sue the jelly belly company and gain a little bit o $$ =D jk...but still. i would be very disturbed if eating bugs bothered me at all.

Yes, we know about wikipedia. However, comments that add nothing to the conversation except nonspecific doubts should also be taken with a grain of salt. If you actually have a better reference on the subject, we're all listening.

for the record that symbol says kosher but its not actually a recognized hechsher (it means a symbol that shows something is kosher). many companies will put things on their products that make them look kosher when in reality they are not. if you are still wondering about kashrut a good referance is http://kosherquest.org/html/Reliable_Kosher_Symbols.htm

Hey Thanks, meeee! It's a great resource, and I didn't know that such a thing existed-- I though that we were just on our own to figure out which agencies were reliable. Looking at that list does inject a little bit of sanity into these things!

You (and everyone else who wants to talk about how many people eat instects or why they love them, or why they think that they could be considered kosher-- and so on) seem to be missing the point. As discussed in Step 1, this instructable is about how NOT to eat insects.

If *not eating insects* is not your goal, you should ignore this instructable and move right on to the next one, not tell the poster that they are wrong for having written it. For example, if I were to come across an instructable about how to repair a Ford engine block, and I do not have a ford engine and do not plan to acquire one, I probably will not comment about how the writer should drive a Toyota instead.

It might also explain why there are so few many vegan or vegetarian recipes on instructables-- If this story is any indication, they must all get filled up with comments saying "meat is yummy...." That doesn't seem very useful to me. I don't go around telling meat eaters to go vegan; I don't understand why so many people insist that I should eat insects.

Another aspect to eating fewer bugs is that the FDA allows a certain amount of contamination of food products by insects (specifically bulk grains, both whole and ground). I have not researched the regs, ordanic foods may have a highher or lower limit of such contamination. As a person with food allergies, this instructable is very enlightening. A big TAN-Q

I have to agree with oskay. This instructable is simply here to point out common foods that have insects in them. He doesn't say that it is wrong for everybody to eat insects, or that they aren't kosher, or that other foods don't have insects in them too. Although I myself am not planning to give up Good N Plenties any time soon, I find this very interesting and informative.

thanks for revealing what is in the food we eat every day! personally, i don't really mind ingesting a few bugs (there are a lot worse things you could be eating!) but it is still nice to know what is in your food. great instructable!

Before jumping to conclusions... this instructable doesn't designate the confectioner's glaze in the final picture to be shellac or zein. I can understand erring on the safe side of not consuming it. Shellac is also used as a pharmaceutical coating and on apples. I agree - thanks for the heads up. I don't have a problem with eating animals and insects but it's good to know where your food comes from.

That is a good point. In defense of what is written above, I have never seen a verified instance of zein-based confectioner's glaze being used as an ingredient in candy, but several of shellac. So, my impression is that shellac is the commonly used one. If anyone can produce counterexamples, I would like to see them.

oooooooooo this reminds me of a george carlin skit where he talks about the people in the air force who say that theyl eat any thing oh well here is the skit "geez im hungry what is that what ever give it to me ill eat it" "its rats asshole don" "whatever it needs ketchup"

Haha i have known some foods contain bugs, and im fine with it! I dont think bugs really have feelings, and afterall, God made animals ( aand probably bugs) for us to eat! thanks for informig people though, so they can choose whether to eat bugs or not

It contains peanuts because of the peanut butter flavoured jelly bean, methinks. However, by the time it actually gets into to product, it may be such a small amount that only severely allergic people might have a reaction to it. Who knows, either way, they're still stupid. All for food labeling reform in the U.S. say 'Aye!'